Massimo’s Not Very Loud Theatre

Purpose

This activity has multiple purposes.

The first one is related to self-esteem and public speaking. Many introverted people find it difficult to speak in front of an audience and they can often forget about the body language they are using, that’s because they are too focused on the speaking part and so are neglecting the communication that the listener receives by the speaker’s body language. With this activity you will not be able to speak so you will be forced to focus only on your body language. 

The second purpose is related to confidence: theatrical activities and workshops are great to help somebody acquire confidence and self-esteem and this activity will focus on creating a story in a short time and on acting in front of other participants. 

The third purpose is about storytelling: in this activity you will have to write and then to act a story without being able to talk, so you will have to use other tools to make a good story without the conventional methods that we are used to.

The fourth purpose is focused on developing creativity: having little time and not many options for telling a story to the public, the actors/participants will have to find creative ways to act their story.

The fifth purpose is about time management: having little time to write a story and to act puts you in a position in which you have to be creative and effective. The skills that you acquire while doing this can be easily utilised in a work environment. 

The sixth purpose is to make the participants aware of the assumptions that they very often have: while a team executes a story, other participants have to write on their paper what they think the actor’s story was about. Naturally, the teams come to different conclusions and after everybody shares the conclusions, the team who just acted their story reads the actual script in front of everybody. In this way, the participants realize how just body language can be misinterpreted. The awareness about the assumptions we make is important not only in the work environment but also in our daily lives, especially if we are aiming to become European Citizens, meaning that we are often in contact with people who speak a different language than ours (thus there is space for misinterpretation).

Instructions

• Divide the participants in teams.
• Give each team the pieces of paper in the order explained above and a pen.
• Explain the rules to the participants. (The teams are not allowed to communicate with each other, unless you ask them to do that)
• Tell the participants to write a script for the story in which they have to act, specifying that they will not be able to speak.
• Tell the teams that while they are watching the theatre, they need to write on the blank papers what they thought the story was about.

Debriefing

• Ask the acting team to read the actual script after everyone shared the assumptions.
• Reflection time.
• Repeat until everybody is done with acting. 
• Explain the purpose.

Possible alternatives

• The topics of the acts can be changed depending on the subject.
• The teams can have more than 3 people.

Remarks

Don’t forget to give clear instructions and to take care of your time – this can be a fun activity, but it can also become long and people can lose their interest. Pay attention to your group and stay in touch with the flow of the scenes.